Hearing Voices
by Annabrea-Shaw
Summary: A Time Lord can see all that is, all that was, and all that ever could be. Sometimes this Time Lord needs the help of his TARDIS to see what is right in front of him. Rose/Nine(ish). Edited and re-posted, still rated M for implication.


Hi there! So this was posted last night, and got deleted, because I never think about the rules before I upload. So The story has been re-edited for language and content. Still rated M for implication, but I've seen worse on this sight.

This short was written with the Ninth Doctor in mind, but I'm not sure I got him right so bear with me. I didn't include it with the 'Climate Control' drabble because of the rating difference.

As always, title suggestions are accepted and appreciated. Please review!

Love, Me

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Hearing Voices

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A Time Lord can see everything; all that is, all that was, and all that ever could be. With the entirety of the Time Vortex flowing through him, the mind of a Time Lord could be a very busy place. This is why Time Lord children were brought to the Academy at the first sign of ability. A Time Lord was trained to block out and filter through the strands of the Time Vortex – it was a lot like navigating through a very extensive library. The only rule? A Time Lord _cannot_ observe or interact with his own time line.

Period.

The Doctor, being a traditionally trained (if not a traditionally practicing) Time Lord, had access to this 'database' of time and space. In addition to the one rule, though, The Doctor had his own rather long list of rules the he chose to follow in respect to seeing and travelling through the Time Vortex. One of the many was that he would never, ever follow, check, or even glance at the timelines of his companions.

Ever.

They were too close to his own timeline, he'd found. Even if he wasn't looking for information about himself, inferences could be made. Plus, there were just some things a person shouldn't know about the people he travelled with.

The Doctor had been known to shudder at the thought of what might be on Captain Jack Harkness' timeline.

The TARDIS, though, was bound by no such rules. The TARDIS was all of time and space, at all times, in any place. Nothing could surprise a TARDIS, nothing was unknown. A TARDIS could act of its own consciousness in response to, or to preserve, the Time Vortex.

As beings of the Vortex, a Time Lord fostered a very close connection to his TARDIS.

Not that the damn things couldn't be _bloody_ annoying when they wanted to be!

The Doctor scowled as he banged on the grating that made up the console room floor. He made as much noise as he could, trying to drown out the presence of the TARDIS in his head. When hammering didn't work, he started mentally humming as loud as he could.

His ship – his beautiful, loyal, funny, _traitorous_ ship – had looking into Rose Tyler's timeline and was trying to project part of it into his mind. Specifically, the TARDIS was sending him Rose's current time stream, as in what she was doing at that moment. Shouldn't have been a big deal, since she was on the TARDIS anyways and he'd just seen her thirty minutes before.

Except it was a big deal, because Rose had left the console room to relax. Rose's favorite way to relax was to enjoy a long soak in the Jacuzzi-style tub adjoining her room. Apparently it was a very enjoyable bath, if the sounds the TARDIS was funneling into his brain were any indication.

Very, very enjoyable.

Half way through his third mental reciting of "God Save the Queen," The Doctor heard – via TARDIS mental-mail – Rose gasp something that sounded suspiciously like his name. His eyes screwed shut and he doubled the force of his hammering, bellowing the next verse of his song loud enough to echo around the control room.

"MAY SHE DEFEND OUR LAWS"

He heard a gasp…

"AND EVER GIVE US CAUSE"

A long, drawn out moan…

"TO SING WITH HEART AND VOICE"

That… _that really_ was_ his name!_

"GOD DAMMIT!"

The TARDIS chuckled at him as the Doctor threw his hammer at the wall. He got the sense that the ship was mocking him and the words '_I don't think those are the words…'_ ghosted past the sounds he could still hear coming from Rose_._ He growled around him and stomped to the console, jabbing a finger at the time rotor.

"Now you listen here, missy. I don't need to hear… that. So stop it." The TARDIS didn't answer, but Rose's voice only grew louder in his head – though she'd apparently moved beyond the ability to formulate words. The Doctor considered finding that hammer and hitting the console itself, but he was pretty sure the TARDIS would have hidden the tool by now. Instead he grabbed a lever and slammed it forcefully down, almost flattening it.

The grating whine of the TARDIS dematerializing sounded like laughter.

The Doctor could hear Rose's moans growing louder and her breathing getting faster. The cold steel of the support beam pressed tightly in his clenched fists grounded him to lucid thought. _Keep control._ He kept telling himself. _Do _not_ go there._

_I have to get out of here._

The ground rocked as the ship landed (_finally_) and The Doctor lunged for the door. He heard a splash, the rough landing obviously jostling the water from Rose's tub, but the girl's hitched breathing didn't even falter. In fact, her speech capabilities had come back…

_Don't listen, don't listen, don't listen!_

His knees fell to the spongy floor of some forest somewhere. Hopefully this wasn't a hostile planet; he hadn't had time to check. The cool sensation of moist dirt slipped through his fingers and he twisted his hands in the vegetation. He took a deep breath of warm, fresh air and heard the chatter of some type of bird in the branches above him.

His mind was silent of all but his own thoughts. Finally, he'd escaped. It wasn't the first time the TARDIS had seen fit to share Rose's private life with him, something his ship seemed convinced he should be a part of. In the beginning he could use old Gallifreyan calming chats to distract himself, then the humming and the hammering. This was the first time he'd ever actually had to land and _leave_ the TARDIS. But he didn't dare risk letting Rose's… whatever it was… affect him.

No matter how much he _really wanted it to._ Or how much he wanted to _see_ Rose say those things. How much he wanted to _make_ Rose say those things.

And then he could hear her again. Rose was moaning his name over and over, so loud in his head that she could have been calling in his ear. The Doctor gasped and clenched his eyes shut. He tried the chants again and forced his breathing to slow. His hands gripped the forest floor tighter

Despite his best efforts otherwise, he felt - for the first time in a long time - his muscles twitch and his blood begin to pool lower. _No, no, no! _

His own name echoed through his brain, loud and drawn out and breathless and absolutely _fantastic_. Rose cried out, water splashed again, then quiet. It was over.

After giving himself a moment the Doctor sat up. His pulses calmed themselves and the physical effects that had begun to appear faded, leaving no evidence of his almost reaction. The TARDIS hummed with glee behind him, as if taunting him by saying _'I told you so!'_.

Oh, this was not good.

When Rose appeared at the TARDIS door with still damp hair twenty minutes later, the Doctor stood facing away from her with his hands behind his back.

"Where are we?" she asked. He looked at her over his shoulder and shrugged.

"Dunno." He said, "But I've been out here for thirty minutes and nothing's tried to kill me yet. Wanna go exploring?"

Rose grinned that grin that made his hearts flip and closed the door behind her. Looping their arms together she took the lead, pulling him off into another new world for another new adventure.

_Like nothing's changed._ He thought.

Except something had definitely changed.


End file.
